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Juliana Renz Makes Swimwear for Vegas Women

Juliana Renz brings the colors of swimming to the desert in one of Le Doux’s new caftan creations.

Juliana Renz may be a native of Brazil, but she’s infusing her Le Doux Swimwear designs with the legendary sparkle of Las Vegas—and recently made her 11-year on-again-off-again love affair with the city legal by moving here permanently.

“When people come to Vegas, they are willing to take a risk,” says Renz, “so they might buy a swimsuit a little brighter, a little tighter, and a little more sparkly.” Le Doux is there to offer women more glitter and glamour with body accentuating bikinis in vivid colors and with crystal embellishments.

Designing swimwear is part of a natural progression for Renz, who grew up in the surf-obsessed southern coastal town of Florianopolis. “The creative part is so easy that it doesn’t feel like work,” says Renz, a graduate of LA’s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She and her mother, Marly Renz, run Le Doux together, with elements of the business in Brazil, LA, and Las Vegas.

The local market for the brand began booming after Renz designed cocktail waitress uniforms for Encore Beach Club. And those custom uniforms became something of a mainstay of her business: Renz has designed uniforms and a custom suit for SLS in Miami as well as a custom suit for SLS in Beverly Hills. Then came private label uniforms for Vdara, Aria, Mandarin, and of course Wynn and Cosmopolitan. Her love for Vegas sparked a Sin City collection two years ago. And while many designers have the foresight to design Vegas-only lines for those who want to snap up something they can’t find in their hometown, Renz realized that different resorts draw different bikini-wearers. Le Doux began creating Wynn-only swimwear sold at Swim and now offers a more gently priced Cosmopolitan-only collection sold at the Boulevard Pool store. (Both offer the same über-sexy cuts, but Cosmo’s is adorned with more hardware-inspired embellishments to appeal to the generally younger demographic.) Next up: The brand’s new, vibrantly colored caftan collection will be launched in February at Wynn, with 10 animal, floral, and ethnic-inspired prints, retailing for around $600.

Success came quickly after Cameron Diaz was photographed wearing Le Doux bikinis in 2006. “I got very lucky,” Renz says of the brand’s popularity with celebrities like Megan Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, and NeNe Leakes, who have all been spotted in Le Doux. “The bathing suit has changed from being functional to being glamorous,” she says. Renz uses her love of animal prints and color and her self-described glitter obsession to make every bikini a fashion statement and ensure that every Le Doux collection sizzles. “Style is my passion,” she says. “I like colors and textures. I like beauty. But style has nothing to do with clothes; it’s your little twist on what you’re doing.”

Women in Las Vegas are always looking to make a splash at the pool, so Le Doux’s caftans, cover-ups, and barely-there bikinis are sure to be lasting hits. As Renz says, “Skin is the Vegas uniform.”